USA to expand program to admit Central American immigrants

Just two weeks ago, the U.S. State Department’s top official on refugee and immigration matters, Anne Richard, told The Tico Times that the Central American refugee program was “still on the drawing board”.

“It is important to note that the PTA is only open to applicants who are pre-screened in their countries of origin and does not apply to migrants who travel to Costa Rica on their own”, Richard said.

The government is also broadening a almost two-year-old program to allow some Central American children to reunite with parents already legally living in the United States.

The United States is also pleased to announce an expansion of our existing Central American Minors program, which now provides children in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with a safe and orderly alternative to the unsafe, irregular journey that some children are now undertaking to reach the United States. The efforts are created to combat the crush of tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied children caught crossing the border illegally this year.

The Obama administration announced a broad expansion on Tuesday of a program to let people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras enter the United States as refugees, and said Costa Rica agreed to temporarily shelter some of those with no other recourse.

Hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Hondurans have fled gang violence and organized crime in their home countries in recent years.

The White House is expanding its Central American refugee processing program, under which vulnerable people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras will be transferred to Costa Rica as a safe haven before they are resettled in the U.S. As part of this ongoing effort, the United States is announcing the following initiatives to help vulnerable families and individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

After apprehensions of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America dropped in the 2015 fiscal year, they’re are up again this year ― a fact that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has used as a talking point.

Obama is expanding the program even though a federal court blocked his plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation.

Second, with the assistance of a United Nations agency, the USA will screen applicants in their country of origin when they apply for refugee status. Under the new guidelines, a sibling, care giver or other parent of a qualifying child may apply for refugee status.

DHS also indicated that Mexico will play a greater role by increasing its capacity to screen asylum seekers from Central America.

“This will help achieve one of our overarching goals, which is family unity”, said Alejandro Mayorkas, the deputy Homeland Security secretary. If approved, they would most likely head to the United States, but could go to Canada, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Chile or Uruguay.

That program has received 9,500 applications so far and has resulted in 2,884 people being approved for resettlement.

He and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) both condemned the Central American Minors program in statements because certain undocumented immigrants with temporary protected status or deferred action protections are eligible to bring their children.